Off-duty firefighter Timothy Eiland, 32, was shot in the face in a fatal drive-by shooting while leaving a birthday party Saturday on Chicago’s South Side.
September 13, 2021 – By Katherine Rosenberg-Douglas – Source Chicago Tribune –
Six people were shot — one of them fatally and another critically injured — on the Far South Side Saturday night. An off-duty Chicago firefighter and a 15-year-old girl were among the wounded, officials said.
Authorities said the six people were outside and walking to their vehicles in the 300 block of East Kensington Avenue in West Pullman around 9:40 p.m. Someone in another vehicle “fired multiple rounds, striking the victims,” according to a police media notification.
A 42-year-old woman was shot twice in an arm and once in her armpit, police said, and she was taken to University of Chicago Medical Center, where she was pronounced dead at 10:28 p.m., according to preliminary information from the Cook County medical examiner’s office.
She was identified as Schenia Smith, of the 15300 block of Evers Street in Dolton, according to Natalia Derevyanny, a spokeswoman for the medical examiner’s office. Reached by phone Sunday, a woman who identified herself as Smith’s aunt said Smith is survived by her children and her mother, but she declined additional comment.
Four other people, including the off-duty Chicago firefighter, were taken by paramedics from the Fire Department to area hospitals for treatment of their injuries. A fifth person, a 31-year-old man, later arrived at Little Company of Mary Hospital in a private vehicle, police said.
Police said the injured firefighter, a 32-year-old man, had been shot once in the face and was in critical condition at University of Chicago Medical Center. Larry Langford, a spokesman for the Fire Department, said the firefighter remained in critical condition late Sunday.
Asked for additional details about the man’s career, such as how long he has been with the department, Langford said: “He has been on a few years and is assigned to a South Side firehouse.”
Others injured included:
- A 38-year-old man was shot once in the stomach and was in fair condition at University of Chicago Medical Center.
- A 15-year-old girl was shot once in the arm and she was listed in fair condition at Comer Children’s Hospital.
- A man, 22, was shot once in the arm and once in the leg and he was taken to Roseland Hospital where he was listed in fair condition.
- The 31-year-old man who self-transported to Little Company of Mary Hospital suffered a graze wound to his head and he was listed in fair condition.
The attack was at least the second shooting with multiple victims in Chicago on Saturday. Four people were shot, one fatally, in the Grand Crossing neighborhood on the South Side around 5 p.m., according to police.
No arrests had been made in either shooting, and the cases remained under investigation Sunday, police said.
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